Andy Ruiz affected Joshua's confidence

[_Rexy_]

Mean Machine wasn’t 40 years old, he was undefeated and good puncher.

Pulev is nearly 40, has only had one real meaningful fight in his career 6 years ago and got stopped.

It’s hard to really compare the two.

That said, AJ got the job done but looked as basic as ever for most of the fight

If I was a new fan, I wouldn't believe you if you told me that I just watched the heavyweight champion of the world.

[JakeTheBoxer]

If I was a new fan, I wouldn't believe you if you told me that I just watched the heavyweight champion of the world.

Why not?

There are not many better guys around are they?

[FeFist]

He was throwing consecutive uppercuts. That's not something you do when shook.

[Sparked_26]

Pulev is 50 I heard

[The Problem Child]

Golovkin would murder this kid

[joseph5620]

Joshua still looked better than Crawford against Kavaliauskas, for example.

Kavaliauskas was not 39 years old.

[DaNeutral.]

He looked tentative and unsure at times in there tonight against a 40-year-old.

I'm a big Joshua fan and I have to agree with this. He got the job done, he is still effective and still a world champion but I'm not going to pretend I didn't see the tentative side of him. A pre Ruiz Joshua would of ended that in 5.

Between a good start and a good finish there was some tentatively.

[kiaba360]

Kavaliuskas isn't 40, though.

And Crawford has that dog in him. His mentality doesn't falter when he gets punched in the mouth.

Crawford hasn't lost or gotten stopped yet. Every fighter reacts differently to that first L. It has made AJ more cautious and less likely to take offensive risks. Even-though Crawford is a P4P boxer with a huge company in TR, AJ arguably has more pressure to succeed because he's become one of the sport's cash cows and Matchroom has put a lot of energy into him. Crawford also has 12 more fights under his belt.

The best I have seen Joshua confidence wise was coming back into the fight to stop Wlad.

After that he looked OK until the Ruiz fight where his confidence issues were exposed horribly.

He hides it well, but there is definitely a weakness in his psyche.

That's why he always has the same team and nuthuggers around him, he needs that reassurance constantly to perform.

I'm not hating on the guy for it, but stage fright is a very real thing.

I'm not sure how big his team is, but is it really a bad thing to surround yourself with people who aid in your success? Unlike Wilder who made excuses and fired Breland after his Fury defeat, AJ was humble enough to take responsibility for his Ruiz performance and instead expanded his team so he could improve. AJ may be more susceptible to self-doubt, but that doubt influenced him to make a good decision.

[PRINCEKOOL]

He fought technically to avoid being hit. It was safer but still knocked Pulev down 5 times.

Top quality performance. Others may be haters because they don’t want him to succeed but leave them be.

I was not overly impressed with Joshua tonight, but he still scored a legitimate knock out.

In reality? Tyson Fury has not knocked anyone out at elite level 'Wilder was still game and fighting back at the time of the stoppage' But people seem to act as if he blasted Wilder out 'This perception has Fury high out of his mind'.

Joshua for me is still going through the process of rediscovering himself as a fighter 'That is clear to see'.

Note: I think Joshua will face Uysk next, I honestly believe he wants more preparation for Tyson Fury.

[techliam]

He is Frank Bruno 2.0 benefitting from a treasure trove of belts and a very weak heavyweight era (and a nice promotional arrangement to boot)

The thing is, he’s popular despite the flaws, much like Frank. I think there’s this perception that Brits see him as the second coming of Ali or something. Most Brits I know recognise it’s a weak era and don’t rate Joshua as some great fighter